Challenge London Legacy Funding

Our programme of support for place-based partnerships for the final year of Challenge London

2022 will be the final year of Challenge London, A New Direction’s partnership investment programme. As the programme comes to an end, our priority is to ensure place-based partnerships are prepared as a sector for the period from 2023 onwards.

To help with this transition period, we have announced two new strands of investment totalling £300,000. The Transition Fund, open to established Cultural Education Partnerships and other place-based partnerships, will ensure a network of self-assured, sustainable partnerships. The Powerful Partnerships Research Programme is a supported opportunity, establishing a learning community and encouraging place-based partnerships to develop approaches to monitoring, evaluation and systems thinking in order to build sustainability.


Powerful Partnerships Research Programme

A New Direction is working with B&G Partners as Lead Researcher on an action research programme for place-based partnerships in London in 2022-2023. Through collaborations between four partnerships and matched researchers, we want to involve local communities in tackling complex questions, building sustainability, and developing approaches to monitoring, evaluation and systems thinking.

Partnerships have been awarded £10,000 to design, deliver, and document an action research project. Partnerships have been matched with a researcher to help them explore their action research question. The full budget for this strand is £75,000, with projects running from May 2022 to January 2023, and a full evaluation shared in February 2023.

Partnerships receiving funding:


Transition Fund

This fund comprises £225,000 to invest in continuation grants (up to £15,000) for places to consolidate and sustain high-quality partnership working. The fund primarily targets ongoing support for places currently receiving partnership investment through Challenge London, or established Local Cultural Education Partnerships currently resourcing their work through other means. Transition Fund programmes will begin in June 2022 and run until February 2023, followed by evaluation in March 2023.

Partnerships receiving funding